First, eliminate any flashes, vents and mould lines with a modelling knife and metal files. This miniature is casted as a single piece, so that we can directly glue it onto the base with a little bit of cyanoacrylate glue. Now we can

create some sort of texture on the base. For example, here I use a little bit of modelling putty to fill some gaps on the plastic base, and then I used white glue to fix fine sand and a few small rocks. It is very important to start applying a primer coat before starting to paint the miniature. I do prefer to use the airbrush or a spray, since with these we can obtain a thin and homogeneous primer coat. I like to use grey primer because every color covers very well on a grey surface. I usu-ally paint the base now, since we do not need to be careful to avoid ru-ining any painted area. Nothing is painted yet! Here, I initially painted the base with Chocolate brown 872 (Vallejo) and then I used the Citadel Shade Agrax Earthshade to remark the recesses. Finally, I applied a dry brush with Iraqui sand 819 (Vallejo).

HOW TO PAINT WWII POLISH SOLDIERS IN GREAT COAT

Color chart

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FShade: TAN 066 (Vallejo)

Base: Black SC-00 (Scale Color)

Shade: Dark oxide 302 (Vallejo)

Shade: Chocolate brown 872 (Vallejo)

Base: Dwarf Skin 041 (Vallejo Game Color)

Light: Black + Dwarf Skin 041 (Vallejo)

Base: English uniform 921 (Vallejo) + Russian khaki NAC-08 (Andrea Color)

Light: Ger. C. Extra Dark Green 896 + Ivory 918 (Vallejo)

Light: mix + Light yellow 949 (Vallejo)

Wood light: Flat Brown 984 + Orange Brown 981 (Vallejo)

Shade: Chocolate brown 872 + English uniform 921 (Vallejo) + Russian khaki NAC-08(Andrea Color)

Base: Ger. C. Extra Dark Green 896 (Vallejo)

Wood base: Flat brown 984 (Vallejo)

Metal: Gunmetal 054 (Vallejo)

Base: Flat brown 984 (Vallejo)

Base: English uniform 921(Vallejo)

Light: Dwarf skin + Ivory 918 (Vallejo)

Light: Flat brown 984 + Orange brown 981 (Vallejo)

Light: English uniform 921 + Light yellow 949 (Vallejo)

Skin

Black leather

Brown leather

Metal canisters & HelMet

Rifle

Belt & Pouches

Trousers

Belt & Pouches

trousers

Black leather

Brown leather

Metal canisters & helMet

rifle

preparation

e start working on the eyes by painting a thin horizontal white line on the place of each eye, and then we paint a vertical black line or dot in the middle of each line. If you dislike the resulting eyes, you can start over again. Since we

have not painted the face yet, this should easy at this moment. Once you are happy with the results, paint all the skin surfaces with Tan 066 (Vallejo). Remember that is very important to thin the acrylic paint with water. It is essential. Never use a normal acrylic paint straight from the bottle. By diluting acrylic paints with water, (1) the paint is easily applied, (2) we avoid weird textures (such as brush strokes); and more interestingly, (3) we can create smooth transitions between layers. The latter is very important when applying highlights, as you will see. To highlight the tan color, we mix Tan 066 with increasing amounts of Dwarf skin 041 (Vallejo) until we use directly Dwarf skin. We can apply a final highlight with Dwarf skin mixed with white in a 1-to-1 proportion. I normally apply three or four layers or highlights when painting the skin. The more layers, the smoother the transitions are. To highlight the hands, lead the lights towards the knuckles and fingers. The last highlight should be just a dot on the most protuber-ant parts such as the finger tips. When painting the face, work the

highlights on the forefront, upper part of cheeks, nose and upper and lower jaws. Do not cover completely the previous layer when applying a new highlight. Keep part of the previous layer in order to enhance the gradient effect or transition. To paint a beard effect, we can mix the last skin color we used previously with a little bit of grey and add a little bit more water. Then, apply a thin layer of this mix on the lower part of the face, starting the brush stroke from the middle part of the cheeks and finishing at the bottom.

n the other hand, to paint the green brown color we can mix in a 1:1 proportion English uniform 921 (Vallejo) and Russian khaki NAC-08 (Andrea Color). In fact, you can use only the former if you want a more yellowish

uniform, or only the latter, if you want a more greyish or green-ish uniform. And once again we can use either white or yellow to highlight this color, giving additional hues. Remember: white will generate cold highlights, while yellow will produce warm ones. However, this 1:1 mix is the “real” color or “base”. We need a darker color to create the shades. Following one of the most common painting techniques for wargames, the “triad system”, we need three colors: shade > base > light. We already discussed the lights, by adding white or yellow. For the shade, we can mix our 1:1 mixture with a darker color, for example Chocolate Brown 872 (Vallejo). In sum, the shade will be the resulting mixture of three colors (1:1:1, Chocolate brown, English uniform and Russian kha-ki), the base will be our real color (1:1, English uniform and Rus-sian khaki) and the light will be the real color mixed with white or yellow. However, by using only three colors the contrasts between

layers might be too notorious. This is totally fine, but I do prefer smoother transitions. To achieve this, I add intermediate layers. This other technique is known as “painting by layers or layering”, and looks like this: shade > intermediate 1 > base > intermediate 2 > light. The idea is that to obtain the intermediate layers, we just mix the two side colors. For example, the intermediate 1 is the re-sulting mix of the shade + base in the same proportion (1:1). In our case, it means to add more English uniform and Russian khaki to our initial mixture. Regarding the intermediate 2 and light lay-ers, we first mix our base color with the same amount of white or Light yellow 949 (Vallejo), and then we add even more white or yellow. That is, first a 1:1 mix and then a 1:2 mix (double amount of white or yellow). These proportion are just approximated. Keep-ing this in mind, the highlighting work is exactly the same as we explained before. Lead the lights toward the more prominent areas (the wrinkles) and edges, and remember to do not totally cover the previous layer. And it is very important to thin the paint with water. The semi-transparent layers will considerably help when at-tempting to create smooth transitions.

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uniform & helmet

skin

o paint the trousers I fol-lowed the same concepts we have already explained, but I used only English uniform

rather than the mixture. That is, for the shade I mixed English uniform and Chocolate brown (1:1); the base was done directly with English uni-form; and the lights were done by mix-ing English uniform with Light yellow 949 (Vallejo). When painting the trou-sers, you can specially lead the lights toward the knees. In addition, you can add some dust or muddy effects on the knees and lower part of the great coat by diluting couple of brown colors with water and randomly applying these diluted paints on these areas.

Ttrousers

helmet

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o paint the steel helmet in a dark green color we can start painting it with German C. extra dark green 896 (Vallejo). We have two options to highlight this color. We can either mix it with white or with yellow. The for-

mer will generate cold and greyish lights, while the second will produce warm and greenish lights. You can choose whatever you want. Or even better, you can paint some helmets following one method, and others, following the other. After all, the helmets might proceed from dif-ferent batches and might be worn out differently. This variation in the same unit will increase its personality. To apply the highlight on the helmet we mix the Dark green 896 color with in-creasing amounts of white or yellow. And then we apply these towards the

upper part of the helmet by painting concentric circles, where each one is smaller than the previous. Furthermore, we also apply the highlights towards the lower part, the edges. You can also use the final highlight or lighter color to paint some scratches. T

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inally, we add some vegetation effects on the base. It is important to think carefully where you want to place your miniature. The desert of North Africa is very dif-ferent compared with a swamp in Germany. Taking this

into account, you can work on the vegetation by levels. We can start adding some electrostatic grass or green saw dust. Then, we can add some grass tufts of different shapes and colors (or texture). And finally, we can add other elements, such as small bushes made with seamoss.

FBase

o paint the webbings and other stuff we can ini-tially start painting these elements with Chocolate

brown 872 (Vallejo), and then mix this color with increasing amounts of Beige brown 875 (Vallejo). As a final highlight, we can mix beige brown with a little bit of white. To apply the highlights on the straps we can apply the highlight on the edges, leaving the inner part in the darker color. To do this, I find easier when using the brush horizontally, rather than using the tip. You can also add some scratches using the lighter color. To paint bags, follow the wrinkles and focus on the edges.

To paint the dark brown leather of the belt and pouches you can use three colors: Dark oxide 302 (Vallejo) for the shade, Flat brown 984 (Vallejo) for the base and Orange brown 981 (Vallejo) for the light. Since the sur-face of these elements are very small, we do not need intermediate layers. Once more, we apply the lights on the edges of the pouches and belt.

To paint the metal canisters, we can use the same color we use for the hel-met, German C. extra dark green 896 (Vallejo). And once again we can use either white or yellow for the high-lights. Apply the lights on the edges and details. Using the lighter color you can also add some chipping effects.

To paint the wooden part of the rifle, first we use Flat brown 984 (Vallejo), and then we mix this color with Orange brown 981 (Vallejo) in a 1-to-1 proportion and apply the highlights by painting horizontal lines, which represent the veining of the wood. Finally, we apply an extra highlight directly with Orange brown, following the same idea. To paint the metal parts, we use Gunmetal 054 (Vallejo) and apply a wash with the Citadel shade Nuln oil.

TGear and rifle